picture of the day

Eyes ahead please

14 Comments

Japanese women wearing kimonos ride an escalator at a subway station after attending their Coming-of-Age Day celebration ceremony in Tokyo on Monday.

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14 Comments
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Japanese women wearing kimonos and smart phones ride an escalator at a subway station after attending their Coming-of-Age Day celebration ceremony in Tokyo on Monday.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Rather than eyes ahead it looks like eyes glued to their smartphone.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Further to G Thomas' point, I can't comment on this photo, but there are Japanese blogs that have screen grabs of different Japanese tv news interviewing exactly the same people on the street for vox pops on different issues within several days of each other. The people are clearly stooges giving the reporters the opinions they want to hear.

People lap up priest/kimono/nun with smartphone photos, it's well into trope/cliche territory now, so it would certainly make commercial sense for a photographer to stage one.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So Pretty

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hmm. Looks like this photo was a 'staged' one (as opposed to a lucky, capture a natural moment one), and Reuters picked it up.

Reason why I think this. Because I recognize the 2nd girl on the left. She was on TV yesterday, on NHK news coverage. She was apparently one of the ladies affected by the "Harenohi" kimono rental issue.

Of course, one does now wonder, was this girl actually one of the ones affected, or did NHK (and other news outlets) have a bunch of ladies lined up for whatever 'story' they wanted to run yesterday?

/strokes chin

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Kimono zombies

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Shareholders are urging Apple to develop tools and research effects of smartphone overuse and addiction on young people. In respond to what's seen as a growing public-health crisis of youth phone addiction.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The photo may have been staged, but similar scenes are ubiquitous almost anywhere in Tokyo. Railway companies' public service posters and announcements to curtail such behavior falls on deaf ears (and dead brains). Zombies indeed!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Dodging the smart phone zombies has become an art for me. Not only have they got their eyes glued to the screen, but they are also wearing headphones that blare out music, so not only do they not see what's in front of them (or any other direction for that matter), they don't hear anything either. Recipe for disaster.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They're on an escalator, standing still. It's physically impossible for them to collide with anyone unless some idiot is walking up the down escalator. Checking their smartphones is perfectly reasonable and safe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Why "Eyes ahead"?   and what's with the fake fur white things?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Yes, please keep your eyes glued to your phones so when I am walking with my Starbucks hot coffee and you refuse to move your eyes to the outside world rather than your camera app to admire yourself, I can accidentally spill hot dark coffee all over you and your rented kimono.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

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